This section contains 1,718 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |
SOURCE: Davis, Robert Gorham. A review of The Runaway Soul. New Leader 74, no. 14 (30 December 1991): 30-3.
In the following review, Davis criticizes what he preceives as pretension, posturing, and lack of coherence in The Runaway Soul.
Harold Brodkey's unreadable magnum opus [The Runaway Soul], a great disservice to literature, consists of 835 remorselessly difficult pages, 600 words to the page, and is so literally weighty that it is best read in bed supported by a pillow. Brodkey has told interviewers that he worked on the novel for 27 years, an average production rate of less than three pages a month. His caterpillar pace has done strange things to the text and its effect on readers. Some scenes make us feel as if we were watching a tennis match in slow motion replay, with 10 seconds for every exchange at net, 15 for every serve.
Brodkey did prepare us for this in some of his...
This section contains 1,718 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |